The publication DE 10 2008 006 356 A1 discusses a method for locating the parking position of a vehicle to which an RFID tag is assigned by evaluating radio signals of the RFID tag.
The publication U.S. Pat. No. 6,847,965 B2 discusses a video system for detecting the license plates of vehicles and for comparing detected license plates to a database of stored vehicle data.
The technical development of motor vehicle testing technology has resulted in a plurality of specific external testing devices for different testing areas and motor vehicle components. The vehicle testing devices used for this purpose are highly specialized and adapted to the corresponding vehicle components. Vehicle testing devices are frequently used at special work stations of a repair shop or of an inspection center, for example because the vehicle testing devices are fixedly installed in the repair shop. A vehicle located in the repair shop for fault diagnosis and/or repair is moved from work station to work station, as a function of the test or repair to be carried out.
In today's motor vehicles, many functions are carried out by electronic control units which are connected to the vehicle electronics. The electronic control units frequently also take over onboard diagnostic functions of the vehicle systems and store special diagnostic and/or operating state data. To be able to evaluate the data of the diagnostic functions from the control units, universal diagnostic testers have been developed, which make it possible to communicate with the control units located in the vehicle. The functionality of the communication may be very different and, for example, relates to reading out stored error codes, transmitting actual values, carrying out complex actuator tests, resetting the service intervals, breaking-in installed replacement parts, and similar tasks.
Diagnostic testers usually include an assembly which is responsible for the communication with the vehicle. This assembly is generally referred to as a vehicle communication interface, a term which is customary internationally, abbreviated as VCI. Such VCIs may also be situated in a dedicated housing and may communicate by wire or wirelessly with universal operating and display devices, such as laptops, PDAs or smart phones. The diagnostic functionality of universal diagnostic testers or operating and display devices is assured via corresponding diagnostic software, which allows operation, display, control of the diagnostic process, and communication with the electronic control units via the VCI.
VCIs may be configured as mobile communication interfaces, which may be assigned to a specific vehicle for the duration of a stay in the repair shop. For this purpose, one of a plurality of mobile communication interfaces available in a repair shop may be connected to the vehicle at the vehicle service reception area in the repair shop, and corresponding identification data on the vehicle may be saved to the mobile communication interface. For example, the vehicle type, vehicle license number, serial number, customer data, order number and similar vehicle-specific data may be stored in the mobile communication interface.
Such mobile communication interfaces are thus carried along with the vehicle from work station to work station and may then be used within the repair shop at the different work stations by the particular vehicle testing devices to communicate with the control units installed in the vehicle. The necessity of a complex re-identification of the vehicle at each work station is thus dispensed with since the previously ascertained identification data may be read out from the mobile communication interface into the vehicle testing device.
However, to initiate the communication between the particular vehicle testing device and a mobile communication interface, it is necessary to clearly identify the particular mobile communication interface. Previously, an operator of a vehicle testing device was required to select the vehicle sitting in front of him, or the associated repair shop order number, to initialize the communication. In particular with wireless communication between the vehicle testing devices and the mobile communication interfaces, it may happen that multiple mobile communication interfaces, which are assigned to different vehicles in the repair shop, are within range of the vehicle testing device. In this case, the operator or repair shop employee must select the vehicle which corresponds to the correct vehicle from a list of available vehicles. The mobile communication interfaces may initiate the corresponding list entry themselves when in range, or a central repair shop server handles the management of all mobile communication interfaces in the repair shop and updates the relevant vehicle list.
In any case, the repair shop employee himself must identify the vehicle sitting in front of him at his work station to make a correct manual selection from the list of all available mobile communication interfaces. Such a manual selection is always associated with the possibility of human error. Should the employee be mistaken when selecting the mobile communication interface, communication would be initiated between the vehicle testing device and another vehicle which is not located at the work station. Until the error is detected, for example incorrect diagnostic results could be generated, not intended vehicle functions could be triggered at a different work station with significant safety risks, and moreover this may result in confusion and lost working time.
A need therefore exists for approaches to avoid errors in the assignment of vehicles with mobile communication interfaces to vehicle testing devices during a repair shop cycle.